Attorney General Bill Schuette held a press conference Wednesday with leaders of statewide business and trade groups at the Michigan Restaurant Association’s downtown Lansing headquarters.

Business Leaders for Michigan's political action committee endorsed Republican Bill Schuette for governor Wednesday, saying that the attorney general is more closely aligned with the group's economic proposals than Democrat Gretchen Whitmer.

The support from BLM is one of three major endorsements Schuette snagged this week from business groups, which have predominantly favored Schuette over Whitmer, a former Democratic state senator.

The Michigan Manufacturers Association and the National Federation of Independent Business also backed Schuette this week, joining a coalition of business groups that includes the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, the Michigan Restaurant Association and the Small Business Association of Michigan.

Leaders with the groups cited Schuette's record on taxes and business regulation for their support of Schuette over Whitmer, who has led in recent polls.

"We think Bill Schuette is the right leader to build on and accelerate Michigan's progress toward becoming a top ten state where businesses want to invest and people want to live and work," said Tim Sowton, vice president of government affairs and public policy for Business Leaders for Michigan.

Schuette pledged to increase state funding for higher education and tackle long-term retirement liabilities that the state of Michigan and municipalities face, Sowton said.

"The long-term fiscal stability, long-term liability issues that the state is facing, was certainly a differentiator between the two," Sowton told Crain's.

Charlie Owens, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said Schuette's voting record as a congressman and state senator registered a score of 90 percent on NFIB's scorecard.

That means Schuette supported the NFIB's legislative priorities 90 percent of the time, Owens said.

"The other candidate in this race — from the other party — Gretchen Whitmer also has a record from her (14 years) in the state Legislature — and it averaged 19 percent," Owens said. "That's one-nine percent. Stark difference."

The endorsements from BLM, NFIB and the manufactures association leaves the Detroit Regional Chamber as the last major business group in Michigan that has yet to make an endorsement in the governor's race.

The Detroit chamber's PAC board has a meeting scheduled for Oct. 17 to discuss a gubernatorial endorsement, said Brad Williams, vice president of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber.

Last week, the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce faced backlash for endorsing Schuette because of his defense of Michigan's voter-approved ban on gay marriage, which was ultimately overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Grand Rapids chamber's endorsement of Schuette caused a handful of businesses to rescind their membership in the business group, including Founders Brewing Co.

Over the past week, Schuette has sought to dampen the criticism of his past efforts to defend the same-sex marriage ban by voicing support for a limited expansion of the state's civil rights act to include protections for sexual orientation in housing and employment.

Despite suppot from some of the state's largest businesses, past efforts to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include protections against discrimination for sexual orientation and gender identity have failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled Legislature in recent years. Whitmer has long supported such proposals.

Schuette has signaled he would support a law that prohibits discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation if it contains exemptions for faith-based organizations, including parochial schools and religious-affiliated hospitals.

"With respect to Elliott-Larsen and discrimination, we will have a policy in Michigan that there's no discrimination of any kind, whether it's on race, color, creed, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity — you name it," Schuette said. "Michigan has to be a place that's free of discrimination."

Democratic activists protested outside Schuette's news conference with business groups Wednesday afternoon at the Michigan Restaurant Association, which also has endorsed his candidacy for governor.

The activists questioned Schuette's sincerity on extending the civil rights law to the LGBT community after he wrote an official attorney general opinion earlier this year saying the Michigan Civil Rights Commission could not enforce such a ban discrimination in employment and housing based on a person's sexual orientation without approval from the Legislature and governor.

"So far everything Bill Schuette has done has shown he's not committed to expanding Elliott-Larsen to the LGBT community," said Ryan Sebolt, a Democratic Ingham County commissioner.

Derek Dobies, the mayor of Jackson, held up a sign that said "Bill Schuette is bad for business."

Dobies said he doesn't buy Schuette's new support for expanding the state's civil rights act to improve the national image of Michigan as a tolerant and inclusive place to live and work.